Samaritan Ethics, Systems Science and Society

Contemporary approaches to ethics are centred upon utilitarian and formal ethics. Yet, these are not capable of counteracting the moral crisis in our society. We must move beyond self-interest or merely doing what is specified in codes, to Samaritan ethics, which means attending to the needs of our neighbour even when he is unable to repay us. This ethic has systemic properties; therefore, it can be incorporated into an appropriate systems science framework that includes the humanities and the historical mode of reasoning. Furthermore, rather than social, economic and political manipulation, education—in the classical humanist tradition—should be the appropriate method to help implement such ethics into our societies.     

简单性、复杂性、复杂科学和世界观——一个哲学史的视角

世界及其万事万物的基本属性是简单的还是复杂的,抑或既是简单的又是复杂的？几百年甚至几千年来我们拥有的简单性世界观,虽然指引我们创造了迄今所有的人类辉煌和文明,但它一直伴随有理性的困惑。黑格尔的辩证法曾经以思辨的方式超越过这种困惑,但由于没有相应的科学作支撑使其囿于神秘的唯心主义形式之中,未曾得到应有的重视和真正地理解。复杂性研究浪潮,特别是复杂科学的兴起催生了新的复杂性世界观,在这种新的世界观的统驭下,我们的科学、哲学乃至经济社会的各个层面和整体形态,都正在和将要发生巨大的变化。一个科学和理论的新时代、一种新的社会文明的涌现就在眼前。     

和谐社会秩序形成机制的系统分析：和谐管理理论的启示和价值

良性健康社会秩序的建立与形成是树立、落实科学发展观及构建社会主义和谐社会的重要目标之一.在系统回顾社会秩序及其构建途径相关理论与实践的基础上,深入地考察了和谐管理理论对建立、形成和谐社会秩序这一发展主题的系统性启示及其价值,并以该理论作为指导思想及分析工具,运用系统工程视角,从政府设计规划职能的优化与完善、环境诱导下社会系统的自主演化以及二者围绕发展主题的有机整合等三个方面对和谐社会秩序的形成机制进行了系统的构建,从而探索出一条基于和谐管理理论的和谐社会中预期的人造秩序、演化的增长秩序乃至最终完整秩序的实现路径.     

The Japanese dilemmas of modernity: Negative ideology or neopositive ideology?

Japan's postwar economic “miracle” has attracted much attention. The question is whether the miracle arises from the “unique” and enigmatic nature of the Japanese culture. This paper presents Weber's views of modernity and Habermas's reconstruction of Weber's negative view of modernity. Then the paper turns to Habermas's theory of communicative action, especially, his two-level concept of society integrating the lifeworld and system, and his critical theory of modernity, which analyzes and accounts for its sociopathologies. Then the paper proceeds to argue that Japan's modernity was born, not out of disenchantment, but out of reenchantment, with the concimitant consequence in neopositive ideologies through which the system colonized the lifeworld, leading to imprisonment in a “soft” iron cage.     

The Self-Organization of Social Movements

The New Social Movement Approach and the Resource Mobilization Approach are the dominant approaches in social movement research. They focus either on macro-aspects and externalism or on micro-aspects and internalism. This paper suggests that the notion of self-organization is one way of taking into account both internal and external, structural- and action-based aspects of social movements and that it allows a dynamic concept of protest. The emergence of social movements is not determined, but a complex result of crisis, resource mobilization, cognitive mobilization, self-production—searching for singular laws of the emergence of movements is an expression of one-dimensional, linear, and deterministic thinking. Protest and social problems are non-linearly related. Social movements are part of the civil society system, by producing alternative topics and demands, they guarantee the dynamic of the political system. Existing system-theoretic approaches on social movements (Luhmann, Japp, Ahlemeyer, Hellmann) are rather uncritical and ignore the productive relationship between human actors and social structures in processes of social self-organization. Social movements are dynamic communication systems that permanently react to political and societal events with self-organized protest practices and protest communications that result in the emergence and differentiation (production and reproduction) of protest structures (events, oppositional topics, alternative values, regularized patterns of interaction and organization). The dynamic of social movements is based on the permanent emergence and mutual production of protest practices and protest structures. The self-organization of a social movement is a vivid process, it is based on the permanent movement and differentiation of actors and structures that communicate public protest, a social movement is only a movement, as long as it communicates protest and moves itself. In critical phases of protest new social systems of protest emerge whose form, content and effects are not determined, but dependent upon old structures, i.e., old structures enable and constrain new structures. The emergence of new protest issues, methods, identities, structures, and organizational forms starts as singular innovation, if it is widely imitated then it spreads within the protest system and transforms the system as a whole. In terms of Hegelian dialectics this means that novel qualities sublate the old structure of the total system, i.e., the system is transformed, reaches a higher level, incorporates old qualities, and creates new qualities. In critical phases protest can spontaneously and quickly spread and intensify itself. This reflects the idea of complexity thinking that small causes can spontaneously have large effects. The notion of self-organization as the idea of the networked, co-operative, synergetic production of emergent qualities and systems should be employed in order to arrive at a dynamic concept of protest. In order to reflect the increasing complexity of society and the emergence of a stratified knowledge society, a multidimensional model of class that is structurally coupled to the concept of social movements is suggested.

Action Research: Its Foundations in Open Systems Thinking and Relationship to the Scientific Method

This paper considers those interpretations of action research that can be traced to Kurt Lewin at the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan, and the work in social ecology by Emery and Trist at the Tavistock Institute. It locates the logical basis of these interpretations in the philosophy of pragmatism, particularly as it relates to Peirce’s inferential logic and inquiry system. Drawing on this argument, and on the significant developments in approaches to systemic thinking over the past 40–50 years, a normative set of criteria is established for action research. The paper concludes that both positivist science (which relates to closed systems thinking) and action research (which relates to open systems thinking) are essential to any complete scientific approach.     

从复杂性系统科学视角支持共生与协 同简

本文从复杂性系统科学的视角考察共生论思潮。一是从生物学哲学角度看生态学“合作效应”，批评“生存斗争”假说的片面性；二是从协同学、社会协同学角度看“在竞争中求合作”规律、机制的普适性；三是从博弈论角度看，共赢方法论=合作之道；四是在哲学上看，辨证法正在从“斗争哲学”的曲解中解救出来，为和谐社会服务；五是劳资双方“利润分享”，可以作为“合作效应”的很好例证。从解释学观点看，以上种种看似不同的眼光，在一定条件下，可能实现伽达默尔所说的“视界融合”。     

Fair and Open Approach to Academic Publishing

The Journal Systemic Practice and Action Research (SPAR) aims to encourage into print authors and practitioners of systemic thinking and practice from all kinds of background. In this note we describe both the publishing world into which SPAR has emerged and the systemic and inclusive thinking behind the journal’s publishing policy. We set out our manifesto for a fair and open approach to academic publishing. “A rich and diverse set of potential bibliometric and scientometric predictors of research performance quality and importance are emerging today—from the classic metrics (publication counts, journal impact factors and individual article/author citation counts) to promising new online metrics such as download counts, hub/authority scores and growth/decay chronometrics. In and of themselves, however, metrics are circular: They need to be jointly tested and validated against what it is that they purport to measure and predict, with each metric weighted according to its contribution to their joint predictive power. The natural criterion against which to validate metrics is expert evaluation by peers; a unique opportunity to do this is offered by the 2008 UK Research Assessment Exercise, in which a full spectrum of metrics can be jointly tested, field by field, against peer rankings.” (Harnard 2008)     

维也纳学派对贝塔朗菲思想的重要影响

贝塔朗菲在其学术生涯初期，面对当时科学发展给哲学带来的挑战，在雏也纳学派、尤其是在卡尔纳普的思想影响下，寄希望于通过现代科学的发展及其方法的运用来加以解决，相信科学的进步及其方法的普遍化将能帮助人们合理地安排社会生活。因此，他与维也纳学派一样，运用新的自然科学成果和形式语言工具，追求科学知识的确实性和精确性，为科学知识建立可靠基础，并力求使哲学科学化、精确化，从而最终实现科学的统一。     

Involved in Praxis and Analytical at a Distance

Lately, society has pressed for more direct societal relevance of social research. The argument of this special issue is that engaged research is an answer to the demand for a social science that matters. We define engaged research as a praxis where researchers actively engage in a social field in the pursuit of solving important local problems, while at the same time combining this with a scientific knowledge generation process. In other words, we discuss the conditions for research when researchers “go native” to solve problems and reflect along with participants. We have been able to find several sources of arguments supporting such a research strategy, but our search for methodological guidance on how to act as an engaged researcher has been in vain. What does it take for a researcher to do engaged research? The set of articles in this special issue all address certain aspects of this challenge. Some discuss the researcher’s path towards deep field engagement, whereas others discover various challenges and skills involved in engagement, and the task of developing scientific knowledge based on engaged research.     

Knowledge Management for Social Workers Involved in Disaster Planning and Response in Malaysia: An Action Research Approach

This paper explores the idea of using a knowledge management system to support disaster planning and response (DPR) efforts for social workers involved in such efforts in Malaysia. The study was funded by the Government of Malaysia. Canonical Action Research was used to conduct the study. The Malaysian Association of Social Workers (MASW) was the client organization. The study began with problem formulation to ascertain issues inherent in DPR within the MASW. The next phase of the research, involved action planning—the team considered implementing a web-based knowledge management (KM) system to support DPR efforts for the organization. Post intervention, we conducted an evaluation of our action, based on interviews with key members affiliated to the MASW. Our findings are in tandem with prior work that has examined the role and relevance of KM systems in light of DPR efforts. The client organization in general forms the view that KM systems can support DPR efforts by providing vital information (pertaining to DPR) and assist the overall coordination and planning efforts for the organization.     

技术系统演化的复杂性分析

现代技术的未来发展，高新技术的开发，都需要从技术哲学理论中获得新思路、新方法。从技术哲学视角，考察了技术系统及技术系统的演化过程，对技术系统演化的特性及动力进行了分析，回答了技术系统发生演化的规律和原因，揭示了技术系统整体演化机理。有助于我们了解在什么情况、条件下运用何种方法，使技术与自然、社会协调发展，对于更好、更有效地处理经济、社会发展以及人类面临的严峻问题，促进社会、经济的可持续发展具有重要意义。     

赵九章科学研究的系统性思想刍议

著名的"两弹一星"元勋赵九章是一位"领军型"的科学家。他不但是科学研究领域中的多面手,而且在在科技管理、科技攻关方面具有出色的能力。他系统性的科学研究思想今年看来仍没有过时,对今天的科技界仍颇具启发和借鉴意义。他的"任务带学科,学科促任务"的思想,他的教育与科研结合的思想,他立足生产实践的科研思想,以及"鸡爪变鸭掌"的系统性思想都是科学研究的宝贵精神财富。     

论和谐社会的系统特征

“和谐”总是系统的一种特征，事物内部各要素之间相互作用是“和谐”的实质内容；研究“和谐社会”，必须坚持辩证唯物主义的基本观点，以科学的社会结构理论为指导，运用现代系统科学的整体性方法、定量分析方法等，也要注意运用电子计算机等现代科学手段；“和谐社会”，是内部结构合理，人、社会、自然相互统一，社会性资源兼容共生的社会。     

非平衡与非线性——科学发展观的系统范式

试从系统论的角度来分析科学发展观,认为科学发展观是一种系统范式,其本身就是系统观。通过分析认为科学发展观是非平衡发展观,是非线性发展观,在实践中贯彻落实科学发展观对经济社会发展意义重大。     

Towards an Holistic Framework for Environmental Change: The Role of Normative Behaviour and Informal Networking to Enhance Sustainable Business Practices

The term ‘Sustainable Development’ is brandished by modern businesses as a marketing ploy used to suggest evidence of ethical conduct, innovative thinking and moral superiority. However, when analysing an organisations’ adoption of sustainable practices, it is often clear—within the UK—that there are few activities that have been undertaken as an ethical stance instead of legal obligation (McCormick in Environmental politics and policy in industrialized countries, MIT, London, 2002). Our hypothesis is that most methodologies and practices for environmental management do not adopt a holistic perspective, causing significant problems in implementation from inadequate structures and communication channels (Espinosa et al. in Eur J Oper Res, 187:636–651, 2008). In particular we consider that most organisations are currently stifled with management hierarchies that prevent informal/social networking, which may be one of the most powerful natural forms for self-organisation. It is proposed that sustainable development requires more efficient communication channels that foster self-organisation and self-regulation as a method for more productive change processes. In this paper, we explain the reasons why meta-systemic principles of self-organisation and distributed network management offer clear criteria to design an environmental management system that operates on the basis of self-controlled individuals and communities.     

我国自然灾害危机管理中的科学知识传播——复杂性视野下的思考

本文试图就复杂性哲学、科学传播和自然灾害危机管理三者之间的内在关联展开初步阐述;从复杂性哲学的视角,结合我国目前自然灾害危机管理中科学传播存在的问题,突出强调科学传播在自然灾害危机管理中的积极作用,并给出四条初步建议。     

泛系的时代与文化特征

泛系理论历经半个世纪的酝酿、总结和发展，已经形成了有国际影响的系统新论，作为以大科学时代背景下发展起来的跨域研究，泛系论表现出五互七要八悟观的方法论特征及独创性特色。东西文化的交融色彩，则使泛系论在思维上具有联四维的特点而有别于一般系统论成为自创一家之言。泛系是系统哲学研究的新尝试，也是发扬大系统泛系五互思想用于百科哲理研究的一种创举，在未来的科学发展中有重要的地位。     

Performance Management for Social Enterprises

All organisations face the challenge of how to assess performance beyond current financial metrics. These challenges are felt especially strongly by social enterprises, organisations that use business methods to achieve social goals. Social enterprises need to evidence superior social outcomes, are normally accountable to a complex range of stakeholders and yet are often rated low to medium in terms of organisational capacity—thus whilst they have a great need for rounded measurement, they may in practice lack the ability to make use of the different approaches on offer. This paper examines the current and potential use of the conventional Balanced Scorecard model, by social enterprises. The Adventure Capital Fund provides case study evidence of extensive use of a modified Scorecard. The model used is dynamic, combining reflection on the organisation’s current position, ‘near term’ and long term issues. It aims to take a holistic and coherent view of the management of social enterprises. Experience to date suggests that the medium term snapshot provided by the Scorecard is the most valuable, allowing organisations and especially boards and senior executives to keep a ‘strategic grip’ in a period of rapid change and focus on those actions that have best chance of changing performance in the round.     

Rethinking the Scope of Science in Dealing with Complexity

This paper probes the issue of complexity. Grounded in profound oriental and western philosophies, it reflects on and outlines the limitations of two major complexity theories—complexity in systems and complexity in the mind. A further quest reveals that the entities involved in the two theories are not mutually exclusive. System and mind are different entities interacting with each other and displaying volatility. An inquiry into social problems rests on continuous learning, rather than the replication of experiment outcomes in natural science.